The Morning Plum: The great rewrite

The Morning Plum: The great rewrite

By Greg Sargent

There is probably no political goal more central to the GOP’s chances of winning the presidency than persuading the American people to forget just how deep and severe an economic crisis Obama inherited upon taking office.

Mitt Romney has been busily trying to bring about mass public amnesia on this point ever since the good news about the economy foiled his initial rationale for running. And today Karl Rove, in a column attacking Obama’s campaign documentary, launches one of the most ambitious efforts yet to rewrite the history of the past five years:

Mr. Obama has spent three years wallowing in blame. His culprits have ranged from his predecessor, to tsunamis and earthquakes, to ATMs, to Fox News, to yours truly. If you Google “Obama, Blame, Bush” and “Obama, Inherited,” you’ll get tens of millions of hits.

As for inheriting the worst economy since the Great Depression: Perhaps Mr. Obama has forgotten the Carter presidency, which featured double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates, and high unemployment.

Rove is probably not the best messenger for this argument, given his central role in the presidency that presided over, yes, the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. But the fact that he’s straining so hard to make this case is telling.

Minimizing the magnitude of the mess that was dumped in Obama’s lap is absolutely central to the GOP’s whole case against Obama’s economic record. Before long virtually every major Republican and conservative voice will be full-throatedly chanting in unison from the same sheet music.